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'Enemy', 'Mortal Instruments' dominate Canadian Screen Awards

Cast member Gabrielle Marion-Rivard (C) holds the award for Best Motion Picture for "Gabrielle", with fellow cast member Alexandre Landry (top), director Louise Archambault (2nd R) and other staff of the movie at the 2014 Canadian Screen awards in Toronto, March 9, 2014. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

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Two films — Enemy and The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones — dominated the second annual Canadian Screen Awards, held in Toronto Sunday night.

Neither film, however, captured Best Picture. That honour went to Louise Archambault's Gabrielle.

The star-studded event was hosted by Martin Short.

Enemy took the lion's share of the prizes, winning in five categories, including Best Director for Quebec's Denis Villeneuve. The movie also won Cinematography (Nicolas Bolduc) Editing, Original Score and Supporting Actress (Sarah Gadon).

Based on the novel by Jose Saramango, Enemy concerns a mild-mannered college lecturer who encounters his exact double in a macho movie actor. The movie is a tense little thriller about identity and control, and it opens in Canadian movie theatres this Friday.

The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, won awards in Make-Up, Overall Sound, Sound Editing and Visual Effects. The fantasy adventure, directed by Harald Zwart, concerns a teenage girl (Lily Collins) who discovers she's a Shadowhunter, a half-angel destined to protect the world from demons and vampires.

The film also won the Cineplex Golden Reel, an award presented to the Canadian film that earns the highest domestic box office in that year. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones grossed over $5.2 million in Canada in 2013; this is producer Don Carmody's eighth Cineplex Golden Reel Award.

The Best Picture prize this year went to Gabrielle, and Gabrielle Marion-Rivard won Best Actress for her performance in that film. Gabrielle, directed by Louise Archambault, concerns a young woman with a genetic condition (Williams Syndrome) who falls in love and struggles to make an independent life for herself; Alexandre Landry and Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin also star.

The Canadian Screen Award for Best Actor went to Gabriel Arcand for his performance in Le Demantelement (The Auction), a film from Sebastien Pilote about a father who sells off the family farm to help his daughter financially.

Best Supporting Actor went to Gordon Pinsent, star of The Grand Seduction, a comedy about a small town in need of a permanent doctor. The movie also stars Brendan Gleeson and Taylor Kitsch.

Other awards last night went to films The Strongest Man In The world (Art Direction; Costume Design); The F-Word (Adapted Screenplay), Empire of Dirt (Original Screenplay) and The Right Kind of Wrong (Original Song — It's No Mistake).

Subconscious Password was voted Best Animated Short, and Noah won Best Live Action Short. Chi won Best Short Documentary.

Watermark, a stunning film about the interaction between water and human life on the planet (Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky), won Best Documentary.

The Canadian Screen Awards were first presented in 2013. The new award was created to merge the Gemini and Genie Awards, the Canadian Academy's former awards for television and film production in this country.